Chapter 9 4. Empire

On June 8, 632 AD, the great Prophet Muhammad passed away in Medina and returned to Allah, which left many people confused.Indeed, Islam was established by inheritance, partly because Muslims believe in the revelation of Allah, and partly because of Muhammad's personal charm.Now, the Prophet has passed away, and Allah will no longer send messengers. Where will all living beings without a backbone go? This is a serious question. The first thing to bear is who will take over.As mentioned earlier, since Muhammad led the people to move to Yatrib, the Uma gradually replaced the original clans and tribes.When the Prophet passed away, whether this new social organization integrating politics and religion should be positioned as a Muslim community, an Islamic commune, or a Medina state, even historians of later generations are at a loss, let alone authorities.But everyone knows that Uma is like a sailboat on the sea and a caravan on the road, it needs a helmsman and a guide.

New institutions had to be invented, and that was the Caliphate. The original meaning of Khalifa (Khalifa, also translated as Hailifan) is the successor and agent.The full name of the Uma Caliph is Khalifat Rasul Allah, which means "heir and agent of the Messenger of Allah".This can be said to be a fairly accurate and rigorous statement, because his task is to strengthen unity and consolidate the regime, and continue the sacred mission of the prophet, but he no longer has the power and possibility to accept the apocalypse. The earliest four caliphs were elected or supported, known as the "four orthodox caliphs" in history.Their reasons for being picked vary, but it turns out the selection wasn't a bad one.In less than thirty years, the four major caliphates not only unified the Arabian Peninsula, but also conquered Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Armenia, and Libya, and placed large swaths of the Byzantine Empire under the banner of Islam. The Persian Sasanian Dynasty perished.

This is truly extraordinary. Glory be to Allah, and the caliphs also contributed, especially 'Umar, the second caliph who fought the most.In fact, starting from Abu Bakr, the first caliph who unified the peninsula, the Ummah was no longer a society or a commune, but should be called a "caliphate".However, although this country already has the characteristics of an empire of foreign conquest, it has no hereditary emperor.Their territory is as large as the Qin and Han Dynasties, but the transfer of power is similar to that of Yao and Shun.This is of course unsustainable, and the caliphate will sooner or later become an Arab empire.

A revolution is almost certain to happen. The troubles have been around for a long time.In fact, the first three caliphs were not recognized by everyone, and some people insisted that only those closest to the Prophet were eligible for this position.He was 'Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, and husband of the Prophet's daughter Fatima. Those who supported Ali were called Shi'ah faction, which means follower or party of Ali.The opposite is called Sunni (Sunni), which means people who follow Sunnah (the tradition and example of the Prophet).Sunnis are still the majority until now, accounting for eighty-nine out of ten of the world's Muslims.Of course, the two factions also had doctrinal differences, but the earliest differences started with who should be the caliph.

Ali finally got his chance.The year Wu Zetian was made empress, in AD 655, the third caliph, 'Uthman, was murdered by rebels from Egypt, and the first Muslim civil war broke out, in which many fought.Ali, who won the civil war, became the fourth caliph and moved the capital from Medina to Kufah in southern Iraq.Unfortunately, his status is not stable, and he must face stronger challenges. The challenge comes from Mu'awiyah. Mu'awiyah is a Umayyah (Umayyah, old translation Umayyad) nobleman of the Quraysh tribe in Mecca, the cousin of the third caliph Osman, and one of the most famous generals in the caliphate. A navy was built by him.His fleet once made Cyprus surrender without a fight, made the Byzantines flee in embarrassment, and finally completely disintegrated the maritime hegemony of the Eastern Roman Empire.

In fact, although the Arabs invented the dhow very early and mastered the navigation technology, they were only used for commerce and never for war.Bedouins in the desert were even told that people on boats were like insects on leaves in a storm.Therefore, when Mu'awiya proposed an expedition to Cyprus, Othman's condition was that only volunteers could be recruited and his wife brought.This is obviously because he is afraid of his audacity. Facts have proved that the sailing ships of the Arabs are far superior to those of the Romans.The former can travel in any wind, while the latter can only rely on manual work when the wind is headwind.The result was a victory known in history as the "Battle of the Mast," and Mu'awiyah became famous.Therefore, when Mu'awiyah proposed that Ali should be responsible for Uthman's death and used Uthman's bloody clothes as a banner, Ali was actually unable to deal with him.

More importantly, Mu'awiya, who is the governor of Syria and has been in business for a long time, not only has a large army, but also is sophisticated.In 657 A.D., Ali and Muawiyah, who were personally conquered by the emperor, met in the old land of the Romans on the banks of the Euphrates River. Muawiyah, who found himself at a disadvantage, immediately used a strategy.He ordered the soldiers to tie the spears to the top of their spears, and then shouted: Let Allah judge! No pious Muslim would attack the Book of Allah, and the request for arbitration must be accepted according to Arab tradition.This directly led to the split of the Ali camp.The Khawarij faction who fought in the main battle left Ali in disappointment and set up another mountain, and finally ended his life with a dagger.

Mu'awiyah immediately negotiated with Ali's eldest son Hasan, who, supported by his followers, agreed to relinquish the caliphate.Relying on generous annuities and special fees, he spent a short life in Medina and became the second Imam after Ali, respected by Shia Muslims. Mu'awiyah, who became the caliph, did three things: he established the capital of Damascus, established a hereditary system, and integrated the system of theocracy with the administrative management systems of Byzantium and Persian Sasanian dynasties.These three things, especially the confirmation of the hereditary caliphate of the Umayyad family, enabled Mu'awiyah to successfully complete the transition from the caliphate era to the dynasty era. Of course, his regime was also called the Umayyad dynasty.

The Umayyad dynasty continued the expansion of the caliphate, conquering Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Spain one after another, and the countries of Central Asia, Afghanistan and northern India also fell into their hands.In 732 A.D., the 20th year of Emperor Xuanzong's founding, the Arab Legion's blade was even less than 160 kilometers away from Paris.If they hadn't met Charlie Matt, the ruler of the Frankish Kingdom known as the Hammer, they would not have stopped their almost unstoppable footsteps. So far, the Umayyad Dynasty has established a world-wide empire spanning Europe, Asia, and Africa, turning the Mediterranean Sea into its own inner lake, although this "inner lake" originally belonged to the Romans.But now, the Eastern Romans can only look at the ocean and sigh in Constantinople, reluctantly guarding that half of the country.

The Muslim army continued to march eastward to conquer Tashkent, and defeated Gao Xianzhi, a famous general of the Tang Empire, in the city of Talas (now Zhambul, Kazakhstan).As a result, one side no longer marched westward, and the other side no longer marched eastward, and the three world empires of Byzantium, Arabia, and the Tang Dynasty became a tripartite force. However, by this time it was the dynasty of the 'Abbasids. The Abbasids held a black flag to overthrow the Umayyad Dynasty, which earned them the title of "Dark Food in Black".It was the Chinese who bestowed this title, because ancient Chinese history called the Arab Empire a great food.There are also three reasons for using this color: influenced by Persian culture, expressing rebellion and mourning, and drawing a clear line with the Umayyad Dynasty.That's right, Shangbai's Wu Maiye is a "big food in white clothes".

As for the Fatima dynasty that appeared later, it was called "Green Clothes Dashi". But no matter what the reasons were, the result was the same: the history of the Islamic world was rewritten from then on, and the center of the empire moved eastward from Syria, which was close to Byzantium, to Iraq, which was originally Persia. It first set its capital at Kufa, and later moved its capital to Baghdad.Although Damascus, the capital of Umayyad, and Baghdad, the new capital of Abbas, are far away from Muhammad’s Medina, the two dynasties are still so different that the international academic circles generally believe that it is a transcendent A revolution that changes regimes. The result of the revolution was the rise and fall of the Arab Empire and the wider spread of Islam.The coexistence of these two things at the same time is puzzling, but the successes and failures and the lessons learned must be delved into. So let's go to Baghdad.

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Notes: , unified the Arabian Peninsula.The second caliph, Umar ('Umar), was an aristocrat of the Adi family of the Qulai clan. He had a great influence after converting to Islam. During his reign (634-644), he set Hijra as the first year of Islam and conquered Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Persia and Egypt, and later assassinated by slaves who believed in Christianity.The third Caliph Uthman ('Uthman) was a nobleman of the Umayyad family of Quraysh, son-in-law of Muhammad, the standard version established during his reign (644-656), conquered Armenia and North Africa, and was killed in civil strife.The fourth caliph Ali ('Ali) was Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law (the husband of Fatima), who was assassinated in AD 661 and was revered by Shia Muslims as the first generation of Imams (a political and religious rivalry with the Caliphate). Unity Leader). Volume two hundred and sixteen.